No place to hide

‘I’ll give you a good young girl, so you can be sure she listens to you,’ the Lebanese broker tells us as he flicks through the pages of a large black book filled with photos of women. All their details are recorded: religion, height, weight, age and country of origin. ‘She will never need to leave the house without you,’ he assures us.

Posing as prospective employers looking for a maid, we have walked into a recruitment agency in Beirut. Business at the agency is brisk. Currently Lebanon, a country with a population of six million, has more than 250,000 migrant domestic workers. While Lebanese families have to prevail.